Animorphs: World War
by Poncho D
Summary: It's K.A. Applegate meets Tom Clancy when Russian warbirds encounter Bug fighters over the Indian Ocean.
1. Chapter 1

Okay, fixed a few bugs in this one. Some you guys caught, some I did. Fixed  
the thought-speak thing with Tobias, and corrected some references to the  
English measurement system, which Russian fighter pilots don't use: they fly  
in metric.  
  
  
  
Chapter One  
  
0550 Hrs  
Indian Ocean, 200 miles southwest of Diego Garcia  
Russian Carrier Kuznetzov  
  
In the cockpit, Andrei Kyshkin smiled to himself as he smoothly ad-  
vanced the throttles of his MiG-31 into afterburner. He felt the vibration  
through his ejection seat as the enormous twin Tumansky engines spun up to   
thier full bone-crushing thrust. The Foxhound's tailpipes burned with un-  
quenchable fury, blowtorching the jet-blast deflectors and lighting up the  
sad gray morning with their blue-white glow.  
The catapult officer standing off to starboard waved his arm in a   
sweeping motion toward the waist catapult bubble, then bent and touched the  
flight deck, and Andrei Filipovich Kyshkin became the very first Russian   
pilot to experience the thrill of a full carrier launch.  
The shock of the cat stroke momentarily threw him into the seat and   
flattened his eyeballs as his body and aircraft underwent a force of fourteen  
Gs for approximatley two seconds.  
Kyshkin started to breathe again, and suddenly remembered to rotate   
the MiG away from the ground. Now I know that God exists, he thought as he   
slapped the gear handle up. Nothing else could possibly create such force.  
I have been in low-altitude dogfights, bombing missions over Afgani-  
stan, and at least two ejections, he thought, but never have I had this much  
adrenaline in my body!  
He rotated the nose through twenty degrees, the maximum climb angle  
the MiG-31 Foxhound could take under full burner without losing airspeed. He  
looked behind him just as Goronyev, his wingman, was flung from the catapult  
into the air. "How did you like that, Sergei?" Kyshkin asked his wingman after  
giving him a few seconds to recover.  
"Great Mother, now I know what an errant cockroach feels like."  
Leave it to Sergei to come up with the most colorful description of  
anything, from sex to flying to computer programming. They broke the clouds  
at 4,500 meters and leveled off at 5,000. Kyshkin shut down the burners with  
the airspeed tape showing 870 kilometers per hour. Under different circum-  
stances it would have been just another boring, routine air patrol, just  
chasing away the occasional errant imperialist spy aircraft or civvy that  
happened to come too close to the group, as they often did. Surely the cap-  
italists were aching for a look at Russia's brand new aircraft carrier and  
its super-secret electronic systems.   
But this was no ordinary patrol. The newly formed Soviet Republic of  
Russia had officially been at war with China for three days now, and several   
Soviet ships had been lost to the lightning-fast Chinese Fantan bombers.   
Kyshkin's job was to make certain the three Sovremeny-class destroyers on the   
bottom of the South China Sea remained the only ones there.  
"Two, are you up?"  
"Affirmative, Andrei. Let's get hold of the Busters and send them   
home", Goronyev replied.  
Kyshkin checked the blips on his radar that he knew were the three  
MiG-29 Fulcrums of Dam-Buster Flight. He keyed his radio mike: "Dam-Buster  
Flight, this is Wolfhound Lead with a pair of '31s. You are relieved."  
"Affirmative, Wolfhound Lead. Don't get any birds up your pipes."  
Andrei shuddered. He hated the MiG-29 pilots. They were so preppy,  
and they all thought they were so damned good. A Foxhound's AA-9 missiles  
could rip apart those pathetic Fulcrum geeks from over a hundred kilometers  
away. Even the Su-27 pilots didn't like them. Ahh, now there was a real   
plane! It was a match for anything the Americans could throw at it, including   
the vaunted F-14 Tomcat, if it could get past those damnable Phoenix missiles   
first.  
Kyshkin had the MiG-29s in visual range now, watching them peel off  
and head for the tanker before turning for Beira Airbase in Mozambique. He   
concentrated on the task at hand, trying to supress the fantasies creeping  
into his mind of giving one of those insolent eighteen-year-olds a nylon   
letdown. Treason was not his forte, and he did not relish the thought of   
kneeling down in a cell in Lefortovo while they put a bullet in his head...  
"Contact! Andrei, I have a radar contact, five-two hundred meters at   
two o'clock high. They are--bozh moi!"  
"What is it? What's wrong, Sergei?"  
"Their closure rate...they are closing at about Mach 6..."  
"What?! Say again, closing speed?"  
"It is no mistake comrade," Sergei's voice shook as he reported. "It's   
moving at Mach--" Sergei was cut off as something whipped over their heads,  
very nearly colliding with Andrei's Foxhound.  
"Gospodi!" He keyed his radio. "Kuznetsov, this is Wolfhound flight.  
We have just had an encounter with aircraft of unknown type, moving at hyper-  
sonic velocity. Say again, unknown craft traveling at high speed just buzzed  
us! Request advisement." He heard a muttered curse on the other end as the   
air boss replied.  
"Wolfhound flight, abort patrol, repeat, abort and return to base   
immediately."  
Kyshkin was in no mood to argue. He banked and bent on afterbuner,  
just glad to get the hell out of there.  
  
United States  
Marco  
--------------------  
I barged in the door of my house, making it unmistakable that I was   
pissed. T'Shondra had laid yet another of her evil traps for me, and I was  
quite lucky to have escaped from her new boyfriend alive. Dammit, why did  
women just have to do this to me? What did I ever do to them anyway?  
Oh, hi. My name is Marco. What? No last name? Damn straight. How do  
I know you are not one of them? Actually, I know you aren't, because I trust  
you enough to tell you that I am human. But you could get captured, and then  
they would learn everything. So I'm still not telling you my last name. Ha Ha.  
I was just throwing my bookbag down in my room and muttering to myself  
about how all females were evil, when my dad hollered at me.  
"Hey, Marco! Come here, and check out this news report! You know,   
about the mess in Asia?"  
"Yeah, dad, I'm coming." I've really gotten into international poli-  
tics lately. You get that from reading lots of Tom Clancy and Larry Bond   
stuff. I knew that a war had broken out between Russia and China, something  
about oil exports...  
"Marco, check it out," my dad said as I plopped down on the living   
room couch. "This is really weird. Listen..."  
Man, that was one hot anchorlady. I listened to what she was saying.  
"The Russo-Chinese War continues to escalate as the Russians seek to  
rebuild and redeploy their navy, which was crippled during the initial phase  
of the war by Chinese jets. The Chinese, meanwhile, are focusing on keeping  
air superiority, mastery of the skies.  
"Early this morning, both Russian and Chinese pilots claimed to have  
encountered strange aircraft in thier patrol areas. One Russian pilot de-  
scribed the craft as oblong and oval shaped, with serrated structures on the  
front. He said they detected the object traveling at over six times the speed  
of sound. The Russian news agency TASS says they believe this is some kind of  
new Chinese jet capable of hypersonic flight."  
I had already stopped listening. I was staring at the TV in amazement.  
And it wasn't over the anchorwoman. I grabbed the phone and dialed. Ring.   
Ring. Ring. Come on, somebody answer me.  
"Hello?"  
"Jake, it's me."  
  
Tobias  
--------------------  
My name is Tobias. No last name, no school, no state, yaddah yaddah  
yaddah. You know the drill. The Yeerks are here, the Andalites aren't. The   
Yeerks take over your brain and make you a controller, et cetera. No need to   
go into that.  
It was a nice day. You probably already know about the wonderful   
"favor" the Ellimist(s?) did for me, so I'll go ahead and tell you I was in   
human morph. I was lying on Rachel's bed, and so was Rachel. I know what   
you're thinking, so get your mind out of the gutter. We were both fully  
dressed, and we weren't really doing anything, just being together.  
I put my hand in Rachel's long blonde hair, and brushed a strand from  
her face. She was so beautiful.   
"I love you, Rachel, you know that?"  
"Yeah, I heard you the first time. I think makes this ten thousand and  
two," she laughed, running a finger lightly down my chest. "I wonder how much  
in control you are..."  
"Move that finger any lower and I won't last ten minutes."  
"Oh, that sounds interesting. Hmmm, I wonder..." The finger moved to   
my abdomen.  
The phone rang.  
Rachel jumped up off the bed, saying several words I have heard her   
say before. I felt like saying a few of those words myself, but I am calmer  
than that.  
"Hello? Oh, hi Jake. Um, look, I'm kind of busy...the new Korn CD? Uh  
huh, oooohhh, okay, be right over." She hung up the phone.  
"Tobias, we have to go to Cassie's. Now."  
"What's the problem?"  
"Jake said he couldn't talk about it over the phone, but it's big."  
"Ooookay. Let's do it!"  
"Hey, that's my line! besides, this isn't exactly the time to say   
it." She snickered.  
I looked down. Oh, yeah.  
"Sorry," I said. She morphed, I demorphed, and we both flew to   
the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, which is the politically correct term for  
Cassie's barn. Animorph Headquarters.  
  
  
Cassie  
--------------------  
I was trying to give an asprin to an angry goose. Jake and Marco were  
already there, and Tobias, Rachel, and Ax were on thier way. "Hey Cass, what's  
up?" Rachel walked in the door looking a little bleary-eyed. I noticed that  
two or three of her normally perfect blond hairs were a little out of place.  
Oh, man. Only one thing could mess up Rachel's hair...  
Hey, guys! Tobias fluttered in and landed on a rafter. I saw Ax on  
my way over here; he should be here right about...  
"Hello. Lo. Hel. Lo." A very strange looking boy walked in. Ax in his  
human morph, of course. A blue, four-eyed horse with a butcher knife on it's   
tail would have looked very strange walking into my barn.   
"Hello, Prince Jake." Ax said.  
"Ax, for the last time, don't call me prince."  
"Yes, Prince Jake."  
"Ax, didn't you hear me? I said DON'T call me prince!"  
"Yes, pr--yes, Jake."  
Marco leaped off the bail of hay he was lounging on. "I don't believe  
it! It happened! It finally happened!"  
"Lay off, Marco, it's none of your business," Rachel snapped.  
"No, not that, it's Ax! He said Jake. Just Jake! No prince anywhere in  
that sentence!" Marco stuck out his hand to Jake. "Jake, congradulations dude,  
you're a free man." Jake did not shake Marco's hand.  
"Okay, people, down to business," Jake said in his most authoritative  
voice. "Guys, we found the Yeerks' new base."  
"And?" Marco said. "What? You think I'm going down there again? We  
barely got of that place alive! And they're going to have everything they own  
defending it. Gleet Biofilters and guys with machine guns and..."  
"Marco?"  
"...Hork-Bajir and..."  
"MARCO!"  
That was the first time in my life I have ever heard Jake yell. It was  
not pretty. Marco was instantly quiet.  
"The base is above ground."  
That got everyone quiet.  
"What the hell? Why?" Rachel asked.  
I have to admit I was pretty confused myself. Why would the Yeerks be  
building a Yeerk pool above ground? Unless it one of those temporary pools  
they installed during Kandrona shoratges, like the one we had caused once.   
But they fixed that problem months ago...  
"I believe I can answer that."  
"Hi, Erek," Jake said, grinning.  
Erek sat on a bale of hay next to Marco.  
"For one thing," he began, "this is not a Yeerk pool. It's a stag-  
ing base for Bug fighters. Second, they've built in an old abandoned warehouse  
on the other side of town. The Yeerks wanted an ordinary building so as not  
to draw attention to themselves. It's sort of a repair and refueling depot for  
the odd Bug fighter with computer malfunctions or engine trouble. The fighters  
can go there, get repaired, refueled, or whatever, then be on their way. That  
way they don't have to go all the way to orbit just to get a few bolts tight-  
ened.  
"How's their security?" Jake asked.  
"Pretty light, but tough enough for you guys. They've got about four   
or five guys with automatic rifles, and the door has a keypad installed next   
to it, so you need the access code to open it."  
"Keypad, huh?" Marco smirked. "I could take care of that."  
"How?" I asked.  
"Heh heh, you'll see."  
"Okay, Marco, what exactly are you up to?" I eyed him suspiciously. I  
had noticed that my grades in school had been improving just a little, and al-  
though I do my homework and I'm usually a good student, I wasn't putting in  
anymore effort than I usually do.   
Yeah, Marco, what's the deal? Tobias asked, speaking for the first  
time. Rachel gets a fifty-eight on a math test, and tells me she still man-  
aged to jump a letter grade since her last report card? I sense a Marconian   
influence here.  
"Hey, how would I know? Rachel's a smart girl, sometimes, and you   
know how grades are, you never really know how they're gonna turn out."  
"Alright, back to the subject, please." Jake sighed, looking very   
frustrated. "Ax? What do you think?" Ax is our resident tactician. He is very  
very good at analyzing the tactical situation and odds before we decide to go  
into battle.  
"It would be difficult. And, supposing we win, the damage would not  
be very severe. Sev. Vere. Ere."  
Well, hey, every little bit helps. Tobias commented.  
"Ax is right, Tobias," Rachel said, shaking her head.   
Marco threw up his hands. "Well, that's it! I've seen it all. Ax call-  
ing Jake by his first name and Rachel turning down a mission. Man, boys and  
girls, this is turning out to be one hell of a day!"  
"I'm not saying it wouldn't be worth it, and I'm not turning down the  
mission, Marco." She gave him a look that would have chilled Visser Three.  
"Think about it. If you kick a grizzly bear in the shin, you just make   
him mad and he rips you to bits. On the other hand, shoot the same grizzly   
with a thirty-eight revolver, and he's not much of a threat anymore."  
Jake stared at Rachel with an exasperated look. "Rachel, what in the   
world are you talking about?"  
"I'm saying that if we're going to hit the Yeerks, we have to hit hard   
enough to keep them from counterattacking, not just piss them off."  
"Yoohoo, Rachel, Xena, oh ye of the recently uplifted math grade, what  
do you think we've been doing all this time?" Marco shouted. "Visser Three   
thinks we're meals, not warriors. All we've done since the construction site   
is make the Yeerks mad. We haven't done any damage."  
At that point, I jumped in. "Marco, that is bull and you know it!   
We freed several human Controllers in our first raid, we destroyed a Bug   
Fighter, a supply ship, we even saved an entire planet! You think all that is  
just nothing?"  
Marco didn't say anything.  
I was winded. I didn't even know I could get that upset.  
"Okay, vote time." Jake said. "Ax?"  
"I follow you, Prince Jake."  
"Okay, then you're in. Rachel?"  
"Alright, I'm in, but we had better be ready when they hit back."  
Jake turned to me. "Cassie?"  
"I can't," I said, turning to a mucky raccoon cage. "I have school   
work to do, and I spend too much time away from home as it is. My parents are   
starting to get suspicious."  
"Okay, Cassie's out. Marco?"  
"I'll go, but only under protest. You guys are gonna need my maaaa-  
velous computer skills if you want to get into that building."  
"That is not entirely true, Marco." Ax said. "I could handle the key  
pad. After all, it is only human technology."  
"Alright, Ax, that's it. Me and you, hacker war, starting tomorrow.   
The bet is ten dollars. First one to wipe the other guy's hard drive wins."  
"That is very tempting, Marco. Emting. Tem. Em. Ting. But I must de-  
cline, as I do not own a computer."  
"Chicken."  
"Ax, Marco, that's enough. Okay, everybody's in except Cassie, we   
meet in my back yard tonight at eleven. Everbody cool with that?"   
Everyone nodded, except me.  
"Alrighty then, see you guys tonight." Everyone turned to go.  
"Rachel?" I asked. "Could you stick around for a minute? A little girl  
talk?"  
"Sure. What's up?"  
When everyone was gone, I looked Rachel right in the eyes. "Rachel,   
your hair was a little messed up when you got here."  
"Yeah, so? We all have bad hair days."  
"All of us except for you, Rachel. I have a pretty good idea what   
happened, especially when Tobias came in only a few seconds after you."  
"Oh, come on, Cassie, lay off. Look, we didn't do anything serious,  
okay? We were just spending time together."  
Uh huh. I bet.  
"I know, Rachel, and I don't mean to be such a mother, but please be  
careful. The last thing we need is a pregnant Animorph." Boy, that would make  
things interesting.   
"Cassie, girl, listen to me. I am not sleeping with Tobias, and I am  
not going to. I know you're worried, but just relax. I know better than that,   
and so does he."  
"I believe you," I said, turning around so she could not see my face.  
It was only a little white lie. I was used to those by now.  
  
  
Jake  
--------------------  
My parents had gone to bed, and we had been very carefull getting   
into my back yard to avoid the motion lights on the house. Me, Tobias, Marco,  
and Rachel stood there in the dark. Ax was there in his Andalite body. I   
wished Cassie was there.  
Marco and I had decided not to tell the others about the Russians'   
encounter with Yeerk ships we had heard about on the news. They didn't need   
to know just yet.  
"Okay, guys, let's morph," I said.  
As the others began to change, I focused on the perigrine falcon DNA  
inside me.   
Morphing is never logical, unless you're Cassie. The first thing to   
change was skin. Feather patterns began drawing themselves all over my arms,  
legs, and face like bizzar tatoos. Then they puffed up and became three di-  
mentional. My fingernails streched out and out and grew skinnier as they be-  
came deadly talons. My thumbs disappeared. My lips streched out and hardened  
to become a beak.  
All that stuff was pretty weird. But by far the weirdest, freakiest   
part of morphing something small is shrinking. It's like your falling, with   
the ground rushing up toward your face. But you know you will never feel an   
impact with the ground, because you're already on it. At the same time, every-  
thing is getting bigger, growing to enoromous, rediculous sizes. I was feeling  
all of these things as I matched sizes with the falcon. The falcon's vision  
came on. Talk about seeing the light! It's like you are completely blind as a  
human. You know those old thermal pictures from the Gulf War you see on the   
news sometimes? Where everything is in different shades of green? That's what   
it looks like with raptor eyes at night, only not nearly as grainy.  
Another interesting thing is the raptor's mind. When you morph a prey  
animal, you find that they are incredibly paranoid. All that fear and hunger  
and energy, and all you can think about is to run like hell from everything.  
Not so with a predator. The falcon didn't want to run from anything. It wanted  
to fly, to hunt.  
When everyone finished their morphs, we took to the air and headed   
accross town to where Erek said the building was. We landed and demorphed in  
the bushes. There we found the bag of clothes and other equipment Erek had  
left for us.  
Tobias was overhead doing recon. I gave him a questioning look.  
Yep, Erek was right. You got four guys with M-16s at the main   
entrance. This ain't going to be a cakewalk.  
Prince Jake, Ax broke in, If I may say so, I do not beleive small  
morphs such as insects will be able to gain entry. The entire building will  
be sealed against possible Andalite intrusion.  
"You're right about that, Ax. Okay, guys, here's the plan. I go rhino   
and distract them. Rachel, morph grizzly and cover Marco while he works his   
magic on the keypad. Ax, back me up."  
Marco chimed in, "And Rachel says..."  
Rachel said nothing. We all looked at her.  
"What, you guys think I'm going to yell a battle cry with a bunch of  
armed men we don't want to see us standing around?" Rachel smiled. She looked  
right at Marco and whispered, "Let's do it." I had to bite my hand to keep  
from cracking up.  
  
  
Rachel  
--------------------  
Jake finished his rhino morph, and we watched him and Ax bust out of   
the brush and charge headlong at the guards. They saw him and blasted away at   
him, but that thick rhino hide didn't much care about bullets. While the gun  
men were trying to perforate Jake, I grabbed Marco's arm and we headed for   
the entrance. I started morphing as we moved. It was risky, but it would have  
been hard to hide a ten-foot bear in a two-foot-tall stand of shruberry. I  
was done by the time we got to the door. Marco, in his gorilla body, was   
carrying his sensitive cargo: it looked like some kind of calculator with  
wires coming out of the top.  
What is that? I asked him, pointing at the thing.  
Don't worry about it he snapped. I do not have this thing, you do  
not know I can do this, and you never saw me do it. Got it?  
Fine. Just get this over with so we can get inside.  
With his awkward gorilla fingers, Marco managed to somehow attach the  
wires to the screws holding the front of the keypad on. He pressed a button   
on his calculator-thing, and after a few seconds the red light over the keypad  
turned green. I turned the doorknob, and it opened easily.  
Damn, Marco, that was nice work. Hey, you know what? I need a decent  
grade on this history test coming up--  
Forget it, Rachel. I barely missed getting caught last time. If   
Chapman hadn't sneezed before he came into his office, I'd be sitting in DJJ  
right now. Jake, we're in!  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1 is required reading for this one, or it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense.  
  
  
Chapter Two  
Rachel  
--------------------  
Jake, we're in!  
We're on our way. Ax is down, three or four bullet wounds, Jake   
replied.  
I...am incapacitated. Ax grunted. One of you must...cover me while   
I morph out of my injuries.  
I'll take this one, Xena. You've done enough cover work. Marco said.  
He sprinted out the door, and a huge rhinocerous came lumbering in, grinning   
from ear to ear. Jake was cheerful enough: We nailed 'em good, Rachel. Ax got   
shot up when we bum-rushed them, but he'll be alright. Those controllers won't   
be waking up for a while. So, what have we got here?  
Well, nothing so far. But some genius of a controller left this be-  
hind. I picked up a dracon pistol that was laying on the dirty concrete.   
Pretty convienient.  
Set that on stun, Rachel, or don't use it. We're not here to kill  
people.  
Jake, you're my cousin and I love you, but you can be way too soft  
sometimes.  
Jake did not reply. We took stock of our surroundings. We were in   
what looked like a small closet, with a door about a yard away. There were a  
few shelves stacked with papers. A window to the next room, but the lights  
were off in that room, and the moon glaring off the glass was screwing up  
Jake's already rotten vision, so we couldn't see what was in there.  
Want to demorph and see what that stuff is? I asked, pointing a   
claw at the papers.  
No, no need to. But I'll have Marco swipe a few sheets when we   
leave. Let's check out the rest of the building, see what they've got in   
here.  
I put my hand on the doorknob.  
Jake! Rachel! We're in deep caca!  
  
Marco  
--------------------  
You know that old beer commercial, some days are better than others?  
This was not one of those days. Man, if I ever wished I was ambling down the  
beach with my arm around Carmen Electra, sipping a Michelob, it was now.  
Ghaffra Andalite! Freeze! Four snarling, seven-foot-tall Hork-Bajir  
had dracon beams leveled at me and Ax, who was human at the moment. Where did   
these guys come from? And what did these walking rototillers need with   
weapons? They were weapons!  
Shagashna demorph!  
And have these dudes come and perform a little urban renewal on my   
house? Hell no.   
Ax, do we have anyway out of this? Think quick!  
"If you insist," Ax said to the Hork-Bair. He was Andalite again in  
about three minutes. His tail whipped through the air, but it missed because  
the Hork-Bajir had moved. Very far. Very quickly. Being hit full force from   
behind by an angry wolf tends to do that to you.  
Cassie! I thought you were sitting this one out.  
I punched a Hork-Bajir. He did not get back up. The flat of Ax's tail  
blade took care of the other two.  
Well, I changed my mind. Women do that sometimes.  
Sometimes? How about more than they change...  
Forget it, Marco. What did I miss?  
Well, for starters, you missed me breaking into a building and Ax  
getting stitched by gunfire. Jake and Rachel are in the...  
Hey guys! Cassie, what are you doing here? I thought you couldn't   
get away from the house.  
Jake was approaching us with Rachel in tow.  
She wants you to change her-- Cassie growled at me and I shut up.  
Jeez, can't anybody take a joke?  
Never mind me. How did you guys do? Cassie asked.  
So far, we haven't. Rachel found a dracon gun, and we were about to  
go into that room when Marco hollered. By the way, Marco, I found some stuff  
you might like to see.  
Later, man, we need to finish looking at that building first. I   
don't break into places for nothing.  
Guys, you better hurry! Black van coming down the road, about two  
miles away. They'll be here in a couple of minutes! Tobias called down.  
Thank you, our fine feathered AWACS. I said more cheerfully than I  
felt.  
Our fine-feathered what? Rachel asked.  
Never mind. Let's get this over with. Jake snapped. Marco and   
Rachel, come with me. Ax, get their weapons and start putting them in the   
bag. Cassie, cover Ax. Let's go. We headed for the building again.  
  
  
Indian Ocean  
Russian Carrier Kuznetzov: 0700 hrs  
--------------------  
"Comrade Lieutenant, listen to me very carefully," the squadron  
commander said. He glanced at his deputy, then back to Kyshkin. "We do not  
have any idea what that craft you encountered could possibly be. But you and   
Comrade Goronyev must tell absolutely no one of this encounter. We do not  
want the the men to be frightened or demoralized. If more of our pilots   
encounter these hypersonic jets, then I will ask the wing commander to give   
a general briefing. Until then, you did not see anything, understand?"  
"Yes, Comrade Captain." Andrei stood up to go. "But, suppose Sergei  
and I were to run into these aircraft again? What then?"  
"Did they make any threatening moves last time? Did they lock you up  
or chase you?"  
No, you idiot, they didn't threaten us, Andrei wanted to say. All   
they did was buzz over our heads at a measly twenty-five hundred meters per  
fucking second!  
"No, Comrade Captain." Andrei said cooly.  
"Then you must ignore them unless they do. Is that clear?"  
"Yes, Comrade Captain." Andrei turned and left, glad that no one   
could see the steam coming out of his ears.  
Squadron commander Davidov looked at his deputy. "Could he be one of  
them?"  
Deputy Bogdonoff laughed at Davidov. "No way, my friend. Think about  
it, a controller in a human Navy? Any Navy? Naval officers stay at sea on   
patrols lasting for months. Even our people may not see the homeworld for up   
to a year when they go on patrol. Unless he could get a small personal pool  
to store the Yeerk in, but surely inspections would detect such a device,   
though they would not know what is. And who would guard him when the Yeerk  
was out? No, Comrade, human naval units are quite immune to Yeerk influence,  
I think."  
"Perhaps you are right, Kildorn." Butarin-Elnaril-Shintoth poured a   
glass of vodka for his friend, Kildorn-Raya-Karmir, and then another for   
himself. He sipped it slowly, then screwed up his human face, a gesture he  
had learned as a junior Seaman in the Russian navy. "What is it with these  
humans? They drink the worst tasting things on earth, but totally avoid the  
real treasures, like rubbing alcohol. Now, if you will excuse me, I believe  
we both have--personal business to attend to."  
Kildorn left the room, and Butarin focused his mind and felt it   
begin.  
  
United States  
Jake  
--------------------  
Marco, I think I'm going to have to insist on just the papers.  
We were back in the building, having a discussion we really didn't  
have time for about what to do next.  
Oh, alright, Marco whined. Man, I have got to know what's in   
there, he said, looking longingly at the door to the next room.  
Prince Jake, we need to demorph soon, Ax called from outside. I  
looked at my watch. The action had taken about an hour and forty-five   
minutes. That's a wrap, guys. Marco, grab a few of those papers and let's  
move.  
Marco snatched a few sheets from the top of the stack, and we started  
demorphing. Not two seconds after we were done, guess who walked in? With us  
standing there, five kids in bike shorts.  
"Well, we're screwed." Marco said, throwing up his hands. Visser   
Three himself was standing in the doorway, throwing his sneer around the   
room.   
"No, you're not." A familiar voice.  
"Erek!" Rachel shouted.  
Damn, too late! You missed them again, you fools! Visser Three   
started smacking his soldiers around.  
"Bbbbbut Visser, they were right here! The Hork Bajir said they had  
them in custody!" Vice Principal Chapman came running up behind the Visser,   
stuttering his apologies. Visser Three pressed his tailblade aginst Chapman's  
sweat-dripping face.  
Well, they're not here now, are they? he barked.  
"Ummm, guys, what's going on?" Rachel asked. I knew what it was.  
Erek said, "I have extended my hologram around you. Visser Three just   
sees the wall, the door, the papers, the same stuff that's always been in here.   
Just don't move. My father is outside, covering for the others. But you have   
to get out of here as soon as he's gone. No sense taking chances."  
"I heard that," I said. "Everybody morph birds now, then we'll take  
off when he leaves. Hopefully, we'll be high enough so people can't see   
several sheets of paper hanging from a bird's talons."  



End file.
